No knitting before coffee

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Apparently my caffeine dependency has reached new depths this week. I thought I had a spare 5 minutes before I had to leave for work this morning and decided it would be nice to spend it knitting my Tubey since I finally managed to get to the colour change last night. I sat down, started knitting and promptly zoned out only to realise after a couple of minutes that I’d been knitting all the stitches, instead of the K3P1 rib that was supposed to be happening. I proceeded to rip out said incorrect stitches and re-knit at least some of them so that I could feel like I’d made some progress. I then decided that the late Douglas Adams’ comment that “Time is an illusion; lunchtime doubly so.” needs extending to add “and time that you think is spare before leaving for work triply so,” as I had now taken more than 5 minutes on my knitting and realised that I didn’t have my shoes, jacket, housekeys or mobile ready to go. Arriving at work, I realised that I hadn’t had my access badge ready either.

One coffee down and I’m not sure my brain’s doing any better yet!

Oh, and should any members of the Parliamentary Public Bill Committee currently discussing the new Pensions Bill happen to be reading this, please take note that while you had a nice recess last week leaving you refreshed and rejuvenated and able to get through huge amounts of work this week, some of us didn’t. If you could slow down your discussions a little so that I can keep up, it would be much appreciated.

The joy of knitting

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I’m a happy knitter this morning. Last night, I finally got around to trying on the body section of my Tubey and, wonder of wonders, not only does it fit but it is going to be really flattering as well! The colour change is going to land at a nice flattering place just under my chest and the large ribbing, which I was worried about, makes my curves look great.

After the initial problems that I had with gauge on this project, I’m almost amazed that it’s going to fit as well as it will. The best bits though are that, for the first time, I will have successfully adapted a pattern to do what I want to do and I will have recycled a previously unworn finished item into something that I hope I’ll get plenty of wear out of.

Now all I have to do is finish knitting it!

Woolly Flowers

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Earlier this year I looked into ways of either knitting or crocheting a bouquet of flowers and couldn’t really find any patterns that I liked. I wanted reasonably realistic looking 3-D flowers that could be combined into a bouquet but most patterns that I found were for 2-D flowers as accessories or decoration on other items. The only other patterns I found were for lilies. Since I was investigating the possibility of making flowers for decoration at my wedding, lilies just weren’t an option because in Scotland they’re traditionally associated with funerals.

I can’t remember how I came across it but I eventually ordered the book “The World of Flowers in Wool”. The book uses a knitting cast-on around a wire attached to an appropriately sized piece of wood to make each petal individually. You then remove the wood and shape the petals and combine them into the finished flower. The book demonstrates a couple of similar techniques and then is basically a set of recipes for combining different types of petals and leaves into lots of different types of flowers.

I had difficulty finding appropriately sized (and shaped) pieces of wood and, in the end, bought some modelling wood and made my own. (Part of which involved me sawing wood on a desk in a bedroom in a Marriott hotel but I probably shouldn’t say any more about that!) Given that I’m not known for my wood-working skills, I wouldn’t let the thought of this put anyone off trying it.

And here’s the finished result:

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I’ve only managed a single rose so far but have just bought more wire so will be trying out some of the other patterns as well. I still haven’t decided if it’s a practical way to make decorations for the wedding or if I’d have anything like enough free time to do enough in time but I’m still tempted.

Double vision and new needles

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My Knitpicks Options arrived from GetKnitted in the post yesterday and I’ve started knitting with them already. So far so good. I switched them into my Double Vision project so I could compare them directly with the Addi Turbos that are my usual favourite circulars. They’re sharper than the Addis which has meant that I’ve had to adjust my knitting style slightly. I usually use the tip of my finger on the tip of the needle to slip a completed stitch off but that’s now a little painful so I’m trying to use the side of the needle tip instead. It’s not uncomfortable but it’s also not quite engrained in my head yet so I’m still occasionally stabbing myself! The Knitpicks options are also a little grabbier than the Addis, which I think is probably a good thing since I sometimes had problems with projects falling off the Addis.

I’m a little disappointed that you don’t appear to be able to join two cables together to form a longer cable (at least not with the set that I got). The cables are sold in lengths of up to 1.5m so I guess I’ll just have to buy longer ones as and when I need them. I’m also a little disappointed that I got the plastic wallet rather than the binder for them but really these are both minor niggles and don’t detract from how pleased I am with the needles in general.

I’m going to take a little longer to test-drive them but am already considering “donating” my existing needles to my sister, at least in the sizes that I have Knit Picks tips for. With a house move on the very near horizon a little decluttering is definitely called for!

The Double Vision project itself is going brilliantly. The photographs that I took didn’t come out well so I’ll try and get some better ones at the weekend. The project is a blanket comprised of 100 squares. Each square is coloured by knitting together two strands of yarn chosen from ten basic colours giving a total of 55 different colours with 45 of these being repeated on the other side of the square. (The ten that aren’t repeated are the squares made by knitting together two strands of the same colour which form the diagonal.)

I really hadn’t appreciated when I decided to knit this pattern just how big a 1.4 m square blanket would be; my brain hasn’t updated from imperial to metric yet. I did want it to be a long-term, relatively mindless project, which is just as well, since that’s exactly what it’s turning out to be! Given that it’s formed of 100 squares with some contrasting edging, it’s very easy to calculate just how far through it I am. So far I’ve knitted 6.5 squares which translates to (very roughly) 6.5%. That’s not bad for 5 nights’ knitting but means that, at this rate, it’ll take me another 62 nights to finish knitting the squares, never mind the edging and the sewing together!

The good, the bad and the ugly

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The good – we got the keys to our new flat.

The bad – leaking pipes in our new flat.

The ugly – the latest pictures from our new flat! (The “before” pictures are available from here.

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As you can see, we’re doing a pretty good job of ripping things out and pulling the whole place to pieces. It remains to be seen whether or not we’re as good at putting it back together again. We’ve actually made more progess since these pictures were taken. The stripey wallpaper in the lounge is completely gone and one of the bedroom ceilings has had a coat of paint.

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Our new boiler. Easily one of the best bits of the new flat so far since we now have working central heating and hot water.

We’ve found a couple of really cool things in the new flat (as well as enough DNA in terms of hair and nail clippings for an entire series of CSI and enough mould for an entire series of House). The first is this shoemaker’s last which was hiding in a cupboard in the bathroom. It’s going to look great polished up and used as a door-stop.

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We also found genuine hardwood parquet flooring under the carpets in the hall and the lounge! Since it’s been protected by the carpet it seems to be in pretty good condition. We’ll need to fill the holes where someone has tacked carpet grip-rods and stapled underlay to it but once it’s sanded and polished up again it will look fantastic (and save us some money on new carpet).

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The other fun part has been the new toys, sorry, tools that we’ve had to buy to get everything done. Far and away, Steven’s favourite is the crowbar pictured below. This has also easily been the best value tool that we’ve bought. Whoever built the fitted wardrobes and cupboards in this flat obviously meant them to last and pulling them down turned out not to be as easy as we thought it would be since they were screwed to the walls, floor, skirting boards and everything else within reach.

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My favourite tool has been my ostrich feather duster, pictured in its glorious purple and black below along with a selection of the other tools of our trade. It’s just amazing at lifting all sorts of dust and especially good at cleaning sawdust out of circular saws!

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Overall, we’ve made a really good start on the renovation and hopefully we can keep it up for the next month so that we can move as planned!

Huge sigh of relief

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We’ve just heard from our conveyancer that we have finally exchanged contracts on the new flat! In theory, if there are no hiccups with transferral of funds, etc., we should now get the keys on Friday.

Fortunately, our lawyer has been brilliant and has been working on all the things that usually get done between exchange and completion, even though we hadn’t completed. This means that it’s not a problem that there are now only two days between exchange and completion compared to the two weeks that they recommended to us!

Now I can stop worrying about whether or not we’re going to exchange and go back to worrying about how we’re going to find time/money/expertise to do all the work that needs done. Although, even that’s been going better. We have a plumber booked to replace the heating; we’ve picked carpet and just need to pick a sensible date to order it and arrange for fitting; we’ve almost sorted out a kitchen and, when my parents were visiting at the weekend, we obtained expert advice on decorating. That really just leaves ordering a washing machine and fridge/freezer and buying the decorating tools and supplies. We also revisited our budget and discovered that thanks to a silly arithmetic error we have £1000 more than we thought!

I can’t wait till Friday!

Dear Salon….

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I really hope you can forgive me. I was wrong. I thought I could get a cheaper haircut elsewhere that was just as good. I thought you were too demanding. Now, I know better.

Last night was wonderful. You made me feel like a million dollars and gave me everything I could possibly have desired.

I promise never to stray again and to stay faithful and loyal from here onwards (at least until I move out of the area).

Yours always,

Susan

(In case anyone’s wondering, I can heartily recommend Fresh Hair Design in Blackheath!)

Knitting Tips – Swatching for knitting in the round

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I haven’t knitted in the round for a while and had completely forgotten how to do this so thought it worth posting about.

Most knitters will find that their gauge is different when knitting in the round rather than knitting back and forth. This means that knitting a flat swatch for a project that will be knitted in the round may not give usable results. However, casting on, and then knitting, enough stitches to be able to knit a swatch in the round will take almost as much time as just starting the project and ripping it out if the gauge isn’t right. (Ask me how I know!)

The solution is to knit a swatch half in the round. Cast on, using the needle(s) that you’ll be using for the project, enough stitches for a decent-sized swatch (a 5-inch square swatch should give you sensible results). Knit the first row in the stitch pattern specified by the gauge instructions in your pattern. Instead of turning the work around to work back across the row, as you would when working flat, slide the stitches to the other end of your needle(s) and, loosely stringing the working yarn across the back, knit the next row in the same direction that you knitted the first one. This is similar to the method of knitting i-cord but unlike when making i-cord, it’s very important not to pull the extra yarn tight across the back of the swatch as this will pull the edges of the swatch together and distort it.

Repeat this until you have a swatch that’s large enough for you to measure and calculate your gauge. As with all swatching, this has the potential to save you large amounts of time and energy!

Knitting as therapy

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At lunchtime today, I did a wonderful thing. I took my sandwich and my knitting to a bench by the Thames and sat in the sunshine and spent a full hour eating and knitting. I went back to the office refreshed and energised, which, given my sleep patterns at the moment, is verging on the miraculous. I don’t know how much of this was due to the combined effect of the sunshine, the break from the office and the knitting and how much was due to the individual elements but there is definitely something relaxing about the repetitive motions involved in knitting, especially when it’s something as mindless as a long-tail cast on. Being able to empty my mind and do nothing but count stitches as I cast them on was a great way of letting go of some stress.

As a result, I got a huge amount of work done this afternoon, even though I was ploughing through parliamentary committee proceedings! Here’s hoping the weather stays good and I can make this a regular habit.

It’s here!

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Wow! The vast majority of the yarn that I ordered earlier this week arrived this morning. (Note to self: ordering things on Thursday to arrive on Saturday morning when you might actually be in is a good idea.) A couple of the colours that I chose for Double Vision are out of stock but I’m still impressed that everything else was available. I took the obligatory pictures, introduced Steven to the idea of making a really cool throw based on mathematical principles and then showed him the yarn. Now all I have to do is find somewhere to put it before he realises just how much there is of it.

Jaeger Merino

Double Vision yarn

I can’t wait to cast on and get started. I think I’ll start with the Tubey since I’ve had the shrug hiding in the wardrobe for over a year now without ever wearing it. Also, I need to think about how I want to arrange the colours for the Double Vision and I can’t really do that until they’re all here.